Nick Downing (born January 25, 1980, in

Redmond, Washington Redmond is a city in King County, Washington, United States, located east of Seattle. The population was 73,256 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Redmond is best known as the home of Microsoft and Nintendo of America. The city h ...

) is a retired American professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player who is currently the strength and conditioning coach for

New England Revolution The New England Revolution are an American professional association football, soccer club based in the Greater Boston area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. It is on ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

Biography

Early career

The son of Jim and Linda Downing, Nick played soccer locally for Crossfire Sounders and Eastlake High School. As a teenager, Downing had stints training with German clubs Bayern Munich and

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V. (), commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German professional sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's Association football, football team is currently part of Germany's f ...

. Downing made 29 appearances and scored one goal with US U-17 national soccer team, including captaining the team at the 1997 FIFA U-17 World Championship in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. Afterwards, he was named the 1998 Gatorade Player of the Year.

College

As a freshman, Downing played in 23 matches and was named to Soccer America's All-Freshman team. In his second season, he was a second-team All South Atlantic Regions selection. In 1999 Downing was a

Hermann Trophy The Hermann Trophy is awarded annually by the Missouri Athletic Club to the United States's top men's and women's college soccer players. History In 1967, Bob Hermann, the president of the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) and th ...

and Missouri Athletic Club award finalist. During his junior year, Downing announced his decision to forgo his final year of NCAA eligibility and enter the

MLS SuperDraft The MLS SuperDraft is an annual Draft (sports), college draft for teams of Major League Soccer in the United States and Canada in which MLS clubs take turns selecting from a pool of eligible amateur players. These drafted players usually come f ...

Major League Soccer

In 2001, Downing was signed to a

Project-40 Generation Adidas is a joint venture between Major League Soccer and U.S. Soccer aimed at raising the level of young professional soccer talent in the United States. The program, sponsored by Adidas, offers professional-ready players in the U.S ...

contract. Selected in the second round of the

2001 MLS SuperDraft The 2001 Major League Soccer MLS SuperDraft, SuperDraft was held on February 5, 2001, at the Signature Grand in Davie, Florida. Player selection ;Key Round 1 Round 1 trades Round 2 Round 2 trades Round 3 Round 3 t ...

, Downing made only five league appearances for

. The next season Downing saw the pitch twelve times. In 2003, Downing did not make any first team appearances, was loaned to Portland and was later released. After being released from his MLS contract, Downing signed with

Charleston Battery The Charleston Battery are an American professional association football, soccer club based in Charleston, South Carolina, and member of the USL Championship. Founded in 1993, the Battery are the oldest continuously operating professional socc ...

Coaching

Downing joined

in January 2012 as the club's first ever

strength and conditioning coach A strength and conditioning coach (also known as an S&C coach) is a physical performance professional who uses exercise prescription to improve the performance of competitive Athlete, athletes or Sports club, athletic teams. This is achieved throug ...

Honors

;New England Revolution *

MLS Eastern Conference The Eastern Conference () is one of Major League Soccer's two conferences, along with the Western Conference. The division of the conferences broadly follows the path of the Mississippi River from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, with c ...

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

Statistics

References

External links

Profile on FIFA.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Downing, Nick 1980 births Living people American men's soccer players Sportspeople from Redmond, Washington Soccer players from Washington (state) Maryland Terrapins men's soccer players Seattle Sounders Select players New England Revolution players Major League Soccer players Portland Timbers (2001–2010) players Charleston Battery players USL League Two players A-League (1995–2004) players United States men's youth international soccer players United States men's under-20 international soccer players New England Revolution draft picks Men's association football defenders